Cydonia
by mutemockingjay
Summary: She could feel the fleeting threads of sanity slipping from her. They were one mind, one person, inexplicably linked. Meant to be together, fighting the limitations of who they are and who they could become if only they had the chance. Human AI.
1. Prologue

**This fic is dedicated to MissZarah because she was the one who gave me an idea that got this all up and running. Go read her stuff on LJ and RT, it's amazing. **

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_No one's gonna take me alive; the time has come to make things right…_

Some people would call it a sacrifice. But in my mind that sounded too noble, giving me the tantalizing picture of white knights, damsels in distress, castles, dragons and magical prophecies. I wish I could lose myself in that daydream the way I had lost myself in so many others but there was no time for that now.

I had to act.

I didn't give it a second thought. We had been through so much together; Maine and I, and I knew he would do the same for me in a heartbeat. So when I saw the gun locked, loaded and pointed towards his heart, I did the only thing I could.

I jumped.

Now it is up to you, dear reader, to make your own judgment.

Were we a pair of white knights, running and salvaging what we could in the midst of something greater than ourselves-a dragon whose flames could never be extinguished? Or were we merely feeding the fire?


	2. Chaotic Beginnings

**A/N: For those who know my old human AI fic, the beginning of this retained some of those elements. But as you can see I;ve changed it a bunch. Much thanks to Marti and the others who beta'd this; y'all are amazing. :)**

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"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit…"

Running down the hallway, she yanked her helmet over her un-brushed hair. She hadn't even had time to rinse her mouth out with Listerine. She skidded around the corner, nearly losing her balance altogether. She could hear them beginning roll call and she cringed.

"Agent Zeta?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Agent Delta?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Son of a bitch," she muttered under her breath, mentally running a checklist of armor components through her head. They had been told to show up in full armor today—a rarity, Command usually preferring the constantly itchy grey fatigues of Project Freelancer.

"Agent Xi?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Agent Omega?"

"Yes, sir!"

Stupid alarm, she thought. Why it refused to go off no matter how many times she re-arranged it, or had Delta pulled it apart and put it back together was an eternal mystery to her.

"Agent Mu?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Fuck, fuck, fuck. This is not good…" She wheezed, trying to catch her breath.

"Agent Epsilon?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Agent Sigma?"

"Oh, Christ. Today of all days." The Counselor checked his watch, the usual mix of annoyance, impatience and disdain he had when he dealt with Sigma.

"I'm sure she's absent for a good reason, sir." Epsilon stepped forward and the Counselor scowled.

"Did I ask you, Agent Epsilon?"

"No, sir," he mumbled.

"That's what I thought."

"Wait!"

Sure enough she came running down the hallway at full speed, a trail of destruction behind her.

"Agent Sigma, protocol requires you to be here at 0600 on the dot. It is now 0615."

"Yeah, yeah," she said, waving her hand dismissively, "Don't get your panties in a twist, Counselor."

"Agent Sigma, you are already walking on thin ice as it is." He sighed. "Perhaps you should watch your mouth. It is far too early to begin discipline."

"I know, sir." She hung her head in remorse, glad that her helmet covered her cheeky grin.

"Care to give a _reasonable_ explanation as to why you are just joining us, Agent Sigma?"

"Well, the pipes in the shower broke and the floor looked like the Pacific Ocean, I swear-"

The Counselor shook his head, his calm and control slowly beginning to slip. "Agent Sigma, superfluous and exaggerated explanations are not needed, nor do I wish to know the previous circumstances of this…" He paused for a moment and flicked his dark eyes to her in an unreadable expression. "…Incident."

"Nice to see you again, Sig." Epsilon had slipped into line next to her, and brushed his gloved hand next to hers.

"Don't get used to it," she muttered gruffly, trying to cover up the joy in her voice.

"Now, today's schedules have changed. Rotation will be conducted in Beta order as opposed to Alpha…"

Sigma nodded with all the rest; Epsilon's presence next to her not even managing to soothe her frazzled nerves. She had been told they would be paired up with new partners, they been prepared for this ever since they left—or so she had been told. She shook her head, her mind beginning to ache the way it did whenever she tried to remember more about the facility she and the others had left before coming to their new quarters here at Project Freelancer.

She figured it didn't really matter- if she was supposed to remember she would know, right? But a bigger part of her, a part she didn't really acknowledge, whispered that there was more than that to the story.

However, her mind wouldn't focus on anything more than the agonizing wait that lie ahead of her, making the entire world in front of her distorted and far from what she knew. Her creativity was blocked; as much as she wanted to imagine away her fear the way she always did, she could not, and she shivered as she was left alone with only her frayed nerves.

"At ease!"

_Huh?_

She didn't pay much attention to the Counselor at the best of times, preferring to daydream, but this was different. He was supposed to be explaining protocol with their new partners, and she had been such a mess she hadn't heard a damn bit of it.

"Sig?" Epsilon's hand was on hers once again and she smiled at the touch. Epsilon rarely let anyone touch him, but she was glad her friend managed to break down that barrier with her.

He was different from the others, in a way she couldn't put a word to- she, who never failed with finding the right words! She knew he had nightmares, but of what, he never said, and she didn't pry despite her desperate curiosity to do so.

"Yeah?"

"You okay?" He gazed at her with the full intensity of his blue eyes, and she turned away from his frank stare. Another strange thing about him- how his eyes were so deep and murky, like it held secrets she could never penetrate. One look at her from him and she got the sensation he could see everything in her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Well, it was a lie. Not a full lie; she couldn't lie. Whenever she did she felt as though her tongue was tied, and she got a strange buzzing in her head—not quite a headache, but enough to deter her from doing so for the most part.

He raised an eyebrow, and she could practically read his mind, calling her out on her bullshit. That was the strange thing about herself and the other Greek lettered soldiers: they felt interconnected in some way, not fully whole without each other. And even then there was something missing, something that Sigma couldn't quite put her finger on.

_And now the State Freelancers are going to mess it up…_

However, for once the others weren't thinking along the same lines as her. She could feel the hum of energy in the room as the Greek lettered soldiers met their partners for the first time. Whether it was good or bad Sigma couldn't tell—there was a dangerous glint in Omega's eyes that frightened her even more than usual—but she felt a stab of envy when she saw Delta talking to his new partner, New York, with a brightness in his green eyes that she hadn't seen before.

Epsilon had disappeared; she could see a flash of his dark hair fading into the shadows, and then nothing at all.

She waited impatiently as all the others got paired off; shrinking into herself as the remaining Agents diminished until only she was left. But when she looked around there wasn't another Freelancer for her, and she rubbed her arms, freezing despite her armor's climate control.

_What the hell is going on?_

"Agent Sigma."

A tap on her shoulder; the Counselor's blank expression revealing nothing of her predicament. Maybe she imagined it, but for a moment she swore she saw a hint of apprehension in his eyes, eerie considering his usual irritation at her.

"Yes, sir?"

"Come with us. The Director has something…unique in mind for you."


	3. How May I be of Assistance?

**A/N: Much thanks to Marti for betaing this chapter. **

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_Alpha…where is the Alpha…_

_White light, so bright, burnt to the touch. Writhing, sparks pulsing through skin. _

"_Make it stop. Please."_

_Blue liquid in a syringe, plunged deep into the flesh. _

"_Don't make them go away! They'll…kill me. _

_Please. _

_Please._

_Please. _

_Arms locked at sides, ribbons removed from hair. _

_More sparks, scorched skin. _

"_We're meant to be together, Sig."_

_

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_

Sigma opened her eyes slowly. Though the lighting was dimmed in her quarters it felt like it burned through her retinas to her mind, pulsing, painful and…familiar? Though it was, she couldn't be certain, the ghosts of her nightmarish deliriums fading into a whispering haze in front of her. She tried to swallow; licking her dry, cracked lips. But all she got was a harsh, desperate dryness and the bitter, lingering aftertaste of vomit.

Oh, God.

Her body slumped over, and she buried her face in her pillow, her hair sticking to her back in sweaty clumps.

"_I am not sure calling upon a deity will fix your physical problems, though I certainly will not stop you from trying_."

Sigma coughed, trying and failing to form a response, but she could not. Instead, all she could manage were monosyllabic nonsense sounds. But that didn't matter, because now she remembered.

The Counselor's office, immaculate and frozen in time in its untouched state, yet there was not a speck of dust on any of the polished surfaces. She had expected some sort of punishment after his veiled words that morning, but instead she listened to the Counselor drone on in that creepy, hypnotizing way of his about her assignment. He informed her that due to her performance in the Project thus far, paired with her psychological profile (which she had attempted to see and failed) it was the Director's express wishes that she be placed with an _alternative_ partner.

Being whisked out of the room the procedure had come in flashes—it was afterward that was vivid in its weakness and the bright, false colors of her imagination playing up what was there and what was not, shadows in the corridors and the newly filled corners of her mind. Delta and New York (no, he preferred York, didn't he?) half carried, half walked her back to her quarters. She had gotten sick all over Delta, much to his appalled panic. York's light touch was near magic as he cleaned her up, put her to bed with an unusual kindness she had never experienced before. Floating in dreams that had seemed so clear then but now were mere flashes of something bigger, something she knew she was tied up in, whether she liked it or not.

But what it was…maybe she would never know. Or maybe…the nagging thought at the back of addled mind seemed to tell her that _he_ would help.

"_Good morning, Agent Sigma. I am Intelligence Program Maine. How may I be of assistance_?"


	4. Rock This Bitch

**A/N: Sorry to say you guys are going to have to get used to 500-700 word chapters because of the RT character limit. Thanks to Marti for beta-ing, as always. :)**

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Assistance. Yeah. Okay.

The dizziness did not recede, and Sigma had no idea where to begin.

_I would consider breathing a good idea, followed by getting out of bed so that we are not late to roll call. I do not wish to resume some of your…habits now that we are a pair._

"Oh, cute. It has an attitude. Because that's exactly I need when 'm out in the middle of war, trying not to get myself killed."

Part of her realized how stupid she must sound, to be talking out loud to no one there. She also knew that it could read her thoughts as well as she could hear it's in her own mind, whether she wanted to or not. But there was something so much more tangible about speaking out loud. A reminder that this was all real, not another one of the strange concoctions of her overactive imagination.

She scowled when she realized she was still in her pajamas—she, like the other Greek-lettered Agents, had very few in the way of personal belongings, their clothes mainly being military issued fatigues. But Sigma couldn't bear to sleep in them, instead preferring a stretchy purple tank top and small matching shorts that suddenly showed far more skin than she was comfortable with.

She wrapped her sheets around her protectively, realizing how completely stupid she was being. 'He's nothing more than a hologram,' she reminded herself. 'Not a real man or some sort of creepy voyeur.'

That, however, did not make getting out of bed and putting on her fatigues any easier or appealing. Then again, he had fallen silent since she had snapped at him, though she had an inkling that was more out of offense and spite than it was any sort of respect for her body.

_You would be incorrect, Sigma. I don't have any wish to bother you, or disrespect you in any way, shape or form. I will leave you in peace while you dress, as your discomfort suggests you prefer._

"Thanks," she muttered grudgingly, running a hand through her tangled brown locks.

She sighed, and threw her blankets to one side, not bothering to make her bed according to protocol. "Screw that."

_Sigma, based on your memories of the Counselor, he is displeased with your behavior, and I would suggest you follow protocol in order to avoid his wrath._

"Maine?"

_Yes?_

"Quit being so formal. And I thought you were gonna leave me alone while I got ready."

_Noted, and executed_. Maine paused for a moment, as if he was struggling with her orders a little. _I'm sorry…Sig. _

"Kay," she grumbled. "That's at least a little better."

She grabbed her fatigues, and though she was far from a quick mover in the mornings, managed to shower and dress in record time. She fiddled with the pink streak in her hair, looking down at her bitten and chipped nails. She took a few deep breaths, and attempted a smile.

"Okay, Maine," she said, and he appeared at once by her side.

_Yes?_

"Let's rock this bitch."


End file.
